NASA is inviting the public to join agency leaders and
innovators from a variety of fields on November 4 to discuss "What
Matters Next." Discussions and presentations on the theme will be
the centerpiece of the second TEDxNASA, a daylong event modeled on
the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences that
bring together leading thinkers to create a dialogue on important
global challenges.

NASA's Langley Research Center and the National Institute of
Aerospace, both in Hampton, VA, are sponsoring TEDxNASA at the
Ferguson Center for the Arts in nearby Newport News. It is free and
open to the public and will be streamed on the TEDxNASA website.
Registration opens on October 11 and runs through October 24.

"At TEDxNASA we're able to bring together artists and engineers,
rocket scientists and musicians," said Lesa Roe, director of
Langley. "Together we can create extraordinary conversations about
what matters next and ideas to help us meet world challenges."

More than 20 top speakers -- focusing on education, innovation,
family, technology, literature and art -- will share inspiring and
thought-provoking stories at TEDxNASA, as they do at a full TED
event. The challenge of those presenting is to give the talk of
their lives in 18 minutes or less, based on the theme. NASA's Chief
Technologist Bobby Braun and Jim Green, director of the Planetary
Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA
Headquarters in Washington are among those slated to speak.

Green will present at the same time NASA's EPOXI spacecraft is
flying by and snapping close-up images of comet Hartley 2, more
than 11 million miles away from Earth.

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to "ideas worth
spreading." Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years
ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with
multiple initiatives. Conference presentations are made available
for free at TED.com.